Friday, May 11, 2007

Musings about Fancy Stitch Patterns

In preparation for the knit-a-long I am designing, I spent yesterday with a ball of cotton yarn, a Denise needle #8, and my stitch dictionary. That is some strong Sugar 'n Cream yarn! I have used the same yardage about ten times. Rippit, Rippit. I am a notorious multi-tasker and it is hard to count stitches when your attention is divided; I am usually either watching tv or listening to a recorded book while I knit. Probably why there are so many mistakes in my pink lace shawl!

I started with really dazzling stitch pattern choices. I discovered after about six separate attempts at fancy patterns that you can't multitask and get the stitch count right! Also, cotton yarn and plastic needles don't comfortably do more than knit, purl, and yarn-overs. Dipping down to do a "long stitch" or hauling that slipped stitch over the next couple of stitches is not easy with sturdy yarn. I also noticed, even when I got the pattern right, that those fancy techniques tend to leave openings in the knitted fabric that I don't want for my purse fabric.

So for this purse project, I will stick to knit and purl combinations and am trying for easy repeats. I DO want one of the squares to be have bobbles, though, so will give a simple pattern a try on that. You'll find out later if it was successful.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for having this KAL. I have some cotton yarn in red, purple and pink leftover from dishcloths, I think I'll pick up some lime green to go with them.

Becka said...

I read that you were going to KNIT in Charleston, nice shop...when I was last there they were closed, i was bummed (I believe they are closed on Monday, fyi). I've not been in the new shop, but the old shop was quite nice and bursting at the seams, they definitely needed the move. They are in a cute Charleston house, i did peek in the window...can't wait to read what you thought about it!
Your kal sounds like fun!!